Thursday, May 07, 2015

Chamorro Language Elimination

The Forum on the Importance of Second Language Learning that I helped organize last week at UOG was a huge success. We had a massive crowd of students and members of the community. The comments that were made came from all types of people. Some students spoke about how important it is to requires students to take second languages because it will provide them so many long term benefits that they may not be able to perceive yet. Some community members spoke about how this idea of English-only or focusing the education at UOG on a single language was like a slap in the face to the dozens of languages that are spoken daily in Guam. Some business owners talked about the need for more languages to be taught at UOG and that more languages make you more intelligent and marketable. Some teachers talked about how students who know more than one language perform better in school than those who are monolingual. The conversation was fantastic, we stayed an hour and fifteen minutes beyond our scheduled time to accommodate more voices.

I'll be posting more about this issue I'm sure, but in the meantime I wanted to share the article below by Peter Onedera, who was a champion of Chamorro language at UOG and in the community for a long time. He shares his thoughts on the idea of not requiring languages, such as Chamorro at UOG.

Again, we are faced with the elimination of the CHamoru language

It
will be a great day when CHamoru becomes the only language to be spoken
on Guam. This is wishful thinking because I know deep in my heart that
this will not happen, never, at least, in my lifetime.

It
isn't even a figment of my imagination anymore as the island is once
again embroiled in the bitter campaign of whether to just promote an
English-only mentality with the island's and the region's only
institution of higher education proposing to do away with the second
language acquisition program.From
its vast array of academic offerings that will bridge and build
humanity, the sciences, technology and the environment, the CHamoru
language is lumped in along with Tagalog, French, Japanese, Spanish,
Mandarin and Chuukese in a curriculum that will earn students eight
credits toward fulfillment of general education requirements leading to
graduation with an undergraduate degree. A proposal to eliminate them is
currently being debated.

I was first aware that this was going to be happening sometime in 2010
when I was in the midst of preparing for the annual CHamoru Language
Competition. I was alarmed but I decided to keep quiet and wait out the
outcome. It didn't come about even as I made my exodus the following
year. Now, four years later, it's at the forefront just when the CHamoru
Studies program has heralded a major move to offer a much needed
bachelor's degree that initially began with a minor offering, something
that Evelyn Flores, Anne Perez Hattori and I spearheaded at the time.

This is so sad and I am truly disheartened that the soul of my
culture that makes the vibrancy of the island so much alive is further
catapulted into oblivion with an ever-increasing threat of endangerment
and non-usage among the vast population. When will this ever end?The
CHamoru language continues to be treated as a scourge of mankind, an
embarrassment, an afterthought, and something that as someone told me,
"the people on Guam should get over the fact that there is no such thing
as CHamoru anymore." When the person who told me said this, I wondered
if she was referring to the peoplehood or the language? I didn't' bother
to question much further as I resigned myself to thinking that it would
be best not to argue for I knew that my point will not get across.

Yes, it has to be both because when one is not regarded as much then
the other is also included. It's a fact of life and yes, many people
don't bat an eyelash about speaking the language or wanting to learn it,
much more identifying with being a CHamoru or being a Guamanian. It
isn't even a choice anymore as one promotes the latter with forgetting
the former in all its past glory of existence in the islands of the
Marianas.Yes, I
grew up in the generation of being spanked with pursed, outstretched
hands with a ruler by a CHamoru teacher because I spoke CHamoru in
class. In fact, my classmates and I did speak to each other in the
indigenous language at Sinajana Elementary School and we were all
punished, some with the ruler, others with a 5- or 10-cent penalty
payment. I remember the signs that went up all over the island in public
places that forbade the speaking of my native tongue.

Then, many rapid changes took place and it wasn't long before we were
made to feel shameful about speaking the language that had been here in
the islands for thousands of years. A sweeping mental state took over
as suddenly CHamoru was forbidden and everything that was English was
presented in all its glory. So, I was a part of that generation that
also began to see the decline in usage of my native tongue.I
recall being in the first year of junior high when a reading teacher
who was Caucasian humiliated me in front of over 75 seventh graders in a
piloted team-teaching program because I read a passage from William
Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and how she made a comment
that it was refreshing for her to hear British cockney spoken with a
strong CHamoru accent. She broke into raucous laughter that spread to
her teacher colleagues and echoed simultaneously by a wave of unsure
seventh graders who reacted out of bewilderment rather than amusement.
And it was then that I felt ashamed of who I was as a CHamoru as well as
that of my language. It tore me apart.

And little by little, speaking English flawlessly became an innate
motivation for many. I began listening to KUAM radio at the time,
mimicking those English speaking, and obviously, Caucasian announcers
and deejays who had nice, pleasing accents, including Madeliene
Bordallo, who hosted "Women's World" and "Captain Coconut," whose puppet
and audiences of brown kids were the envy of many wannabe CHamoru kids
who had no means of making their way to the radio station located in
Ordot.

Years
later, with a degree in communication with a minor in English, I found
myself speaking English quite well, without a trace of accent, and I
soon began a stint of being keynote speaker at many functions that
ranged from organizations, celebrations, meetings and conferences to
high school graduations. I was basking in that glory of newfound fame
and I hardly spoke CHamoru for I didn't find any reason anymore.
Everyone around me spoke English. Sometimes, conversations began in
CHamoru but it would soon shift to the English language and it came
automatically.This will be continued at the next column.

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Put Guahu / About Me

This blog is dedicated to Chamorro issues, the use and revitalization of the Chamoru language and the decolonization of Guam. This blog also aims to inform people around the world about the history, culture and language and struggles of the Chamorro people, who are the indigenous islanders of Guam, Saipan, Tinian, Luta and Pagan in the Mariana Islands. Pues Haggannaihon ha', ya taitai na'ya, ya Si Yu'us Ma'ase para i finatto-mu.

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The Revolution Will Not Be Haolified

THE REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE HAOLIFIEDTinige’ as Guahu - 2003 (updated 2008)

You will not be able to ignore it che’lu * This time you will not be able to blame it all on Anghet * You will not be able to change channels * And watch Fear Factor, Rev TV of Salamat Po Guam because * The Revolution will not be televised

The revolution will not be televised, nor will it be advertised * It will not be sponsored by the Good Guys at Moylan’s or the better guys at AK. * It will not be something easily explained by radio callers * Whether they be Positively Local, Definitively Settler, or Surprisingly Coconut * It will not be cornered by the Calvos and explained by Sabrina Salas * Matanane * After the story about the incoming B-52’s or 1000’s of Marines careening towards to Guam, and how we * should be economically energized and not terrorized. * Jon Anderson will have no TT anecdotes about it * and Chris Barnett won’t malafunkshun it because the revolution will not be televised

The revolution will not be televised or editorialized * It will not be something canabilized with two inches here two inches there * Dubious headlines everywhere * Lee Weber will not edit it * Joe Murphy will not put it in his pipe and smoke it * Nor dream about it, or tell others the wonders and blunders of it. * There will be no letters to the editor quoting scriptures or denying its constitutionality * And there will be no American flag inserts saying these three colors just don’t run * As the revolution will not be editorialized

The revolution will not be televised or politicized * It will not play the same old gayu games * And promise you that same old talonan things. * The revolution will not wave at you as you drive by on Marine Drive * And seduce you with its hardworking eyes. * It will not be territorial or popular, and not encourage you with maolek blue. * The revolution will not put marang salaman po after its speeches to get more Filipino votes in the next election because the revolution will not be politicized

The revolution will not be televised, not be theorized * It will not be something GCC or UOG friendly. * There will be no books at Bestseller offering to help you lose something in 90 days * Or Rachel Ray helping you cook the revolution of your way. * Ron McNinch will not survey it * and will not poll people about their revolution of choice. * There will be no WASC review report demanding accountability demanding autonomy * And no beachcombing carpetbaggers will proclaim their own terminal authority * Over the histories, the laws, the thinking of those for whom they see nothing but corrupt and corrupting inferiority * The revolution will not be colonized

The revolution will not be televised, not be supersized. * The revolution will not be something you can buy at Ross, or get at blue light cost * It is not just red rice, kelaguan uhang, or popcorn with Tobacco sauce. * It doesn’t come with Coke and it doesn’t fit on a fiesta plate. * The revolution will not make you gof sinexy, cure your jafjaf, or make fragrant your fa’fa’ * The revolution will not force you to be where America’s empire begins * Or where Japan’s golf courses and Gerry Yingling’s credit card debt ends. * You won’t need a credit card, or be charged for the tin foil to cover your balutan * As the revolution will not be economized

The revolution will not be televised, blownback or militarized * There will be no more physical ordnance buried in people’s lands * And no more patrionizing propaganda buried in people’s minds * The revolution will not get you cheaper cases of chicken or increased commissary privileges. * It will not make freedomless flags feel more comfortable in your hands * Or make uniforms fit more snugly around your mind. * The revolution will not deny racism or exploitation * And not create histories about landfalls of destiny * But instead publicize the racism and evils of American hegemony. * The revolution will not be subsidized by construction contracts or the race of Senator Inouye or Congressman Burton * It will not be laid waste to by daisy cut budgets or Medicare spending limits * Instead it will be sustained by deep memories that refuse to die * The revolution will not be televised.

The revolution will not be televised and will not polarize based on blood or color * It will not make your skin lighter * It will not make your skin darker * It will not test your blood the way Hitler or Uncle Sam would of done * It will not hate some and love others based on their time of naturalization * Or incept date of their compacts of free association. * But the revolution will help some find comfort, find strength, find power * In their connections to the land and to each other * Allow some to discover the sovereignty that can be found in solidarity * The revolution will take and remake this consciousness that doesn’t need to be televised * But does need to be revolutionized * The revolution will not be haolified * The revolution will not be haolified